by Lauren Dawes
“Why bother moving to wall when you could do it right here?” I asked, boldly reaching down and stroking him through his pants.
He hissed and threw his head back, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. I squeezed my legs together to ease the pain, the throb, the demand my body was making. My abdomen felt heavy, like it was being simultaneously pulled at, teased, and stimulated.
I looked down between us, the sight of my hand on his cock making me shiver. I wanted to drop to my knees and take him into my mouth, to let him do whatever he wanted to me. I didn’t care about the audience. I felt liberated and wanton and…
“Fuck,” I hissed as he rubbed my pussy through my leather pants. I suddenly wished I’d chosen the dress Faline had first put on. At least that way, Sawyer would have his fingers inside my panties right now instead of rubbing me on top of them.
He kissed my jaw. “Are you wet for me, pussy cat?”
I nodded. “You know I am.” I arched my back, begging for more, searching for the friction he could give me.
He drifted his mouth lower, licking the length of my throat before kissing me. His tongue dueled with mine, pushing me higher and higher. I clutched at his arms, then hooked my leg around his waist, his erection finally hitting me where I needed it to be. Moaning, writhing, fucking riding him like he was the only thing anchoring me to this place, I came. I screamed his name, but Sawyer stole the air from my lungs, stole the words from my throat as he pumped against me.
I groaned when he picked me up, wrapped my other leg around his waist and walked me to the wall he mentioned fucking against. Holy shit. With my back plastered against the brickwork, all I could see was him. His normally gray eyes had darkened to a black, stormy tempest, and I could’ve sworn lightning flashed in their depths.
Slowly, he reached up and slid his fingers along my neck, anchoring his fingers at the base of my skull. His cock pressed against my belly, and he brushed his mouth to mine.
I cried out as another orgasm surfaced so quickly and so strongly that I was glad I wasn’t actually using my legs. I felt like I was lit up from the inside, chasing away the darkness of the club.
Sawyer pressed me against the wall, subjecting me to the feel of his arousal. Not that that was such a hardship. Twelve inches indeed. He kissed me again, plunging his tongue into my mouth over and over again. It was an all-out assault, and I needed more. Fisting his shirt, I unashamedly rubbed myself against him like a cat, and he chuckled. It was like satin and daggers—tempting yet so, so dangerous.
Sliding one of his hands up under the tank top, he teased my nipples, pinching and rolling them between his finger and thumb. I almost came again then, grinding hard against his cock. He rolled his hips into mine, rocking against me in a rhythm that made me squeeze my eyes shut. Then, I came again.
Panting, I looked at him, wondering why in the hell I hadn’t fucked an incubus before. Although, fucking was a stretch. We were both fully clothed. He was just getting me off and doing it spectacularly well.
“Sawyer,” I breathed, tucking my head between his neck and shoulder. I kissed him over his pulse-point, which was roaring against my mouth, then nipped him gently with my teeth. He hissed.
“Fuck!” The word sounded as if it had been wrenched from his throat, and he jerked away from me, dropping my legs. Stumbling back a step, he stared at me, the muscles in his neck cording with sudden tension.
“Sawyer?” I asked, staying where I was, because I was pretty sure the wall was holding me up right now. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “What’s wrong?”
The black was chased from his eyes, clearing to that familiar cool gray. They darted down to my throat as he swallowed convulsively. “Your necklace…”
The darkness began to bleed back into his irises, and he squeezed his eyes shut. The muscles in his jaw jumped as he clamped it shut. When he opened his eyes again, they were gray, but not the cool, clear gray I was used to. This time, there were like steel.
“It’s glowing,” he spat out, the effort to speak evident by the lines branching out from the corners of his eyes and bracketing his mouth. At his sides, he balled his hands into fists, flexing them like he was spoiling for a fight…or to stop himself from reaching for me again.
I glanced down, blinking at the bright glow I hadn’t noticed until now. Given we were in a dark club, that should’ve been pretty fucking evident. How had I not noticed that? The skin around the stone was red and raw, my nerve endings finally firing and my brain registering the agony of the burn. Wrapping my fingers around the opal, I sucked in a hiss.
I looked at Sawyer, whose eyes had lightened to pale gray once more. Shutting his lids, he shook his head. He appeared to be as confused as I was…at least, I hoped it was confusion. If it was regret, well, I didn’t want to think about that.
As I gripped the opal, more and more of that sex haze lifted, and more and more of the heat bled from the stone. Frowning, I demanded, “What the hell just happened?”
“I don’t know. I swear, I don’t… Jesus, I’m sorry, Cat.”
Folding my arms protectively across my chest, I asked, “What happened?”
“I think…” He rubbed the back of his neck, peering up at me from under his thick lashes. “I think we were under the effect of a spell.”
“Say what now?”
“A spell meant just for us.”
“How was that…no, you know what? Don’t answer that.” Good God, I was wet. “You gave me three orgasms,” I told him, slightly affronted.
“Do you want me to apologize for that?” he all but growled, and because he was angry, I got angry too.
“I’m sorry if touching me is so repulsive.” As I stalked away to find the bathroom, I tried to focus on what he’d said. Someone had bespelled us—and only us—but why? To distract us? To tempt us into fucking each other? I couldn’t figure out the why, but I knew how I could.
Locking myself in the first bathroom stall, I shut the lid of the toilet and eased myself down onto it. The last threads of lust were still clinging onto me, and I hoped they disappeared soon. I felt used and somehow dirty. I’d been rubbing up against him like a freaking cat in heat. How was I supposed to look him in the face again? We hadn’t just crossed a line; we’d almost had public sex on it.
Pulling the shard of mirror from the pocket of my jacket, I stared at my reflection for a moment, an image that showed a woman whose world had been fucking rocked by an incubus not two minutes before. Why the hell had the witch even given this to us, and why had I given up my own blood for it? I touched the vampire bite on my neck, my reflection doing the same. I sighed, and was about to put the shard away, when the image went to black. Frozen, I held onto the mirror so hard that my fingers sliced open and blood welled. I couldn’t seem to care as the black melted away to reveal a street. Cars drove by and rain fell. I was seeing through the eyes of the vampire who had made those children.
There was someone walking beside them, and I could see flashes of hair every now and then. It was black from what I could see, but it was also nighttime, so the hair could’ve also been brown. I blinked when the club came into view. The red neon tubing above the door said Slayke, and when the pair stepped inside, I realized this was real time. The same bouncer when we walked in was there. They walked around the bloated dancefloor, and I gripped the toilet roll holder as they moved down the hallway that led to the bathrooms.
Whoever’s eyes I was seeing through stopped at the mouth of the hallway, but the person they were with continued on. And I cursed when I saw who it was.
Seventeen
The bathroom door was pushed open, then the lock snicked into place.
“Cat?” Faline called. “Are you in here, babe?”
I glanced around the stall, looking for something I could use as a weapon. But that was the thing with toilet stalls—there wasn’t much around that could be used… unless I wanted to touch the grimy toilet brush, which I did not. Instead, I put on my big girl panti
es—unicorn ones, naturally—and replied, “Yeah. I’ll be out in a minute.”
I unlocked the stall door and stepped out to find Faline leaning against the sink. The dress she’d ended up deciding on was blood red, no doubt to match her mouth. I didn’t want to believe she was tangled up in this shit, but evidence didn’t lie.
Pretending everything was cool, I washed my hands and dried them. “Enjoying your birthday?” I asked. “I bet you’ve been feeding like it’s Sizzler.”
She smiled, flashing her fangs. “I do love coming here.”
“Come on, let’s go the bar and get you a drink.” I was hedging badly so far, and I had no doubt she saw straight through me. But the succubus smiled and walked to the door.
“I’d love to, but I’m afraid your night is over, Cat McKenzie,” she said, a look of genuine hate in her eyes. I didn’t know what I did to deserve that hate, but I was sure she’d tell me. All the bad guys spilled their guts eventually. They couldn’t handle not getting the recognition for their evil deeds.
“How did you do it?” I asked.
She smiled again, only this time, it was sinister. And creepy AF. “Clever girl.”
I buffed my nails on my shirt. Her shirt. Whatever. “I am clever. And if I figured it out, you can bet your ass Sawyer did too.”
“Oh, the same Sawyer who is fucking anything with ovaries out there on the dancefloor right now? Yes, the spell may have worn off completely for you, but Sawyer is now in a frenzy, just as I planned he would be. An incubus who’s been denied a release will start looking for sex right away, and he won’t stop until he’s rendered unconscious, either by the loss of bodily fluids or by someone knocking him out. Since Sawyer is well known here, they wouldn’t knock him out just yet. They’d let him have his fill.”
I shook my head, a croaked “No” escaping my throat.
Faline laughed. “Poor little human girl sucked into the snare of the incubus. It isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. Who can resist a sex demon after all?”
“Why?” I bit out the word. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because my lover told me to do it. Because he’s given me the chance to stop fucking around and be with only one male without getting sick and dying. Because he has given me everything I want.”
I snorted. “You sound like a pussy.” I was playing for time, although if what she said about Sawyer was true, then I was going to have a hell of a time getting out of here alone.
Faline’s expression hardened. “Come on, Cat. You’re only prolonging the inevitable.”
“Nah, I just like hearing you talk,” I told her sweetly. “How do you think you’re going to get me out of here without anyone noticing?”
She pulled something out from between her cleavage, something about the size of a golf ball that glowed blue. She blew on it gently, and the ball disintegrated into dust, which covered me completely. I tried to brush it off, but whatever it was, it clung to my skin like ink.
“This is a blending in spell. It will make you all but disappear. It tricks the brain into seeing what they think is there, rather than what is there,” she said, preening. “So, you can either walk out on your own two feet, or I can knock your ass unconscious and remove you that way.”
“Tough one, but I think you’d rather I remain awake for this, isn’t that right? If I’m staring at the back of my eyelids, you’ll have to wait until I come around again and that’s time you don’t have, considering it’s already midnight and your vampy lover will probably die at sunrise.”
She snarled, baring her fangs at me. “You just have all the answers, don’t you?”
“I try.”
Taking me by the arm, she wrenched it around behind me, then grabbed my other arm. I struggled to break her hold, but she was much stronger than me. Something cold and hard snapped around one of my wrists, causing panic to bloom and flood my nervous system with all those great human physiological reactions to fear.
“What are you doing?”
My question was chased by the sound of the other cuff closing around my wrist. And that was when I hit my limit. I yanked at the cuffs, the sharp, cold edges cutting into more than just my skin.
“I have no idea how you think you’re going to get me out of here without anyone noticing me screaming—”
She threw her hand over my mouth, tutting me when I tried to bite her palm. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” she crooned into my ear, rimming the shell of my ear with her freakishly long tongue. I jerked away as far as I could, causing her to laugh. Yeah, I was a regular comedian. “Come on. Draco is waiting for you.”
She unlocked the bathroom, and I opened my mouth to start screaming. Just as the words were about to come out of my mouth, it felt like a gag was placed between my teeth, even though Faline hadn’t put one there.
“A muzzle to keep you quiet,” she purred, dragging me down the hallway. When we stepped into the club, I searched frantically for Sawyer, praying what the bitch had told me about him wasn’t true. I stumbled to a stop when I found him fucking some random female up against a wall, while a line of more women waited their turn.
“I told you. He needs to exhaust himself, and I knew that spell would work on him. This…” She motioned to Sawyer, but I hadn’t taken my eyes off him. “This is what his true nature is.”
He was fucking the female he was with but staring at the next one in line. He beckoned her closer and burrowed his free hand up her short dress. A second later, the female’s head tilted back against the wall as she shuddered with ecstasy. A pang of longing, regret, and anger went through me, the strange combination of emotions making me feel physically ill.
She dragged me away, through the doors, and outside into the pouring rain. I shivered at the change in temperature, then froze when the vampire Faline was serving stepped from the shadows.
He approached me, wearing his black suit and tie like it was a second skin. His dark hair was slicked back from his face, and I wasn’t sure if it was the rain that had done that, or whether it was his regular style. He looked me up and down with dark as pitch eyes, his cruel mouth turning into a sneer at his eyes returned to my face.
“I expected more,” he said dismissively, “especially given who your parents were.”
I lunged for him, biting back the hiss when Faline yanked back on my wrists. My elbows and recovering dislocated shoulder screamed with the pressure, and I eased back a step. “Don’t speak a word about my parents,” I snarled.
My statement made him laugh. “Why shouldn’t I? I was there when they both died…by my hand.”
I blinked at him just as the opal around my neck pulsed with heat. It wasn’t glowing though, so the thing was malfunctioning, or it didn’t work as I thought it did. Either way, I was fucked.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Why would I tell you?” he shot back. “You think I’m going to reveal all my secrets like some bad Bond villain?”
“I was hoping you would, yes.”
He cupped my cheek, making me jerk away with a hiss. His hands were ice-cold. “You have much to learn, Cat McKenzie.”
He walked to a town car and popped open the rear door. “Get her in and let’s go.”
Faline unceremoniously shoved me into the back seat, then slammed the door. I shuffled along uncomfortably, the position of my arms behind my back preventing me from even a sliver of comfort. My shoulder was aching now, and I cursed myself for going out without the sling.
“Someone really should put my seatbelt on,” I said when Faline got into the driver’s seat and Count Fuckula got in the other side. He turned around to look at me.
“I don’t care if you get injured in a car accident, but be a dear and sit behind Faline. A trip through the windshield wouldn’t be pleasant.”
Grumbling, I slid over. A) because I wasn’t stupid, and B) because I had to keep an eye on the bigger threat.
The car glided smoothly over road as the backstabbing succubus navigated a
way from downtown and out into the wealthier suburbs that had shot up over the last couple of years. Mansions perched on man-made hills, each neighbor trying to outdo the other both in grandiosity and positioning. Really, it was just a very expensive dick measuring contest.
And why was I not surprised when Faline pulled into the driveway of a house that looked like it was the biggest badass on the block?
“I think you could’ve made it bigger,” I told Draco. He glared at me, and I tipped my chin in the direction of the house. “You know, all this is how big my cock is kind of thing. Oh! And then added a giant neon sign that reads ‘Vampire Sleeps Here.’”
His glare became arctic—not figuratively, but literally. Ice formed on the inside of the windows and on the seats.
“Touchy.”
“Shut it, McKenzie,” Faline snarled.
I shook my head. “Nope. Sorry. You don’t get to have a say in anything I do anymore, Faline. You are on my shit list.”
She snarled softly under her breath but didn’t take her eyes off the task at hand, which was landing this motherfucking car like it was a jet. Did she think she was driving a truck?
“What’s the turning radius like on this thing?” I asked before I was slammed back in my seat forcefully. My head rocked as my brain splashed back in the cranial fluid. My mouth throbbed, and I tongued a cut on my bottom lip. Faline was shaking out her hand. The bitch had hit me, but I hadn’t even seen her move.
“You know, your mother was mouthy too,” Draco said softly, turning his dark eyes to me. “She didn’t stay that way for very long.”
Fire erupted in my belly. “What do you know about my mother?”
Yes, I was angry, but not because this bastard had killed her. Okay, I was totally pissed that he’d killed her, but what bugged me more was that he knew she had a smart mouth. Even I didn’t know that. I didn’t remember my mother, which was fucking weird since I was nine when she disappeared, but my father had never been around long enough to talk about her. I felt like her memory had died somehow, and I mourned the loss of knowledge.
